Why I stopped knitting

 

I had mostly stopped knitting (and spinning!) about 7 years ago when I came down with an acute case of Bouncy Toddler.  My daughter had a tendency to treat Mommy and all of her stuff as a jungle gym/trampoline, with no regard whatsoever for what I had in my lap, or what might happen to it (or her) if she landed on it.  All pointy sticks were packed away, and rarely saw daylight.  Because I worked nights, there really was no time that I could knit safely – what little free time I had needed to be spent on other things. 

Unfortunately, she never really progressed past the Bouncy Toddler phase.  She was diagnosed with autism at 2 1/2, and has continued to jump into my lap with her typical lack of concern/understanding that there is something sharp that might do her damage.  Until she has been hurt by something, she doesn’t recognize that it can hurt her.  Fortunately it only takes once, and she’ll avoid that thing like the plague – but I’d rather she didn’t have to learn about 2mm lace needles by experience 😦  These last two years have been better, as we have found an ADHD med that reduces her tendency to Superball off all available objects.  It also makes a big difference for her in school – always a good thing!  As a result, I have been slowly rediscovering things I had to set aside those first few difficult years.  I’m glad I’ve been able to come back to these – I really missed spinning!

 

I still have a lot of unspun fiber stored away, which should keep me occupied for quite a while, as long as I don’t decide I really need to make something for which none of the fiber I have at home is suitable.  I hope it will be many months before I get to that point.  I’m all in favor of The Bottomless Stash, and I understand quite well why it’s necessary to have several different types of tops or roving, and at least one full fleece of every different breed one comes across.  Right now I just can’t afford it – I need to spin what I’ve got before I can justify spending money on fiber.  I count myself lucky that most of the wool I have can be spun into a variety of different yarns, and I still have enough dye that I’m not limited to knitting with white (with the exception of one gorgeous black Navajo-Churro fleece – but that’s another blog post).  I’m luckier than some – at least I already have everything I need!

So I’m still spinning my three-ply sock yarn – two bobbins down, one to go!  I finished my Cookie A. Clandestine socks and have started a pair of plain-vanilla wool socks for my son.  In the spirit of “don’t buy what you can make,” I’ve been knitting warm socks for the household instead of buying them.  I also have a growing basket of socks that need darning that I will get to one of these days.  If I can fix it, I won’t replace it.  I do admit to procrastinating on the sock darning – I don’t expect it to be fun! I am, however, getting some assistance with my sock knitting….

"Please account for any period of inactivity longer than 6 weeks…."

I’ve been neglecting my blog terribly!  I’m sorry!  December tends to be a busy month here as it is for many other households.  I cannot, however,  in good conscience put all the blame on December.  The biggest culprits have been my knitting needles, which have been mostly dormant for the past few years, but are now waking up again.  Yes, I’ve gotten back into my fibery pursuits!  All my activities seem to run in cycles, which is why I never get rid of craft supplies, even for things I haven’t done in years.  I know (through experience!) that some day I’ll get an urge to do that particular craft again, and everything will come back out! 

I’m getting to know my knitting habits better as years go by.  In fact, my knitting and handspinning preferences are quite well matched!  I prefer to spin fine yarns.  I know a lot of spinners complain about not being able to produce that irregular “beginner’s” yarn after they master consistent spinning – I am not one of them!  I have come to realize that no matter how quickly chunky yarns knit up, I just don’t like the look.  I also know that I will never have the patience to knit an adult-size sweater, especially in the finer yarns I prefer, so I don’t even try anymore.  I really love socks!  Now that I’ve discovered how to knit both socks at once I no longer suffer from Second Sock Syndrome and I find that socks are the perfect portable project, and because they can be finished so quickly I get a much greater sense of accomplishment.

I have discovered that while I love color, I do not like doing colorwork in knitting.  I generally knit continental-style, but can also do English style, so fair-aisle is pretty easy (one color in each hand) – I just hate weaving all the extra ends in!  I find the need to stop and start the different colors to be a distraction – it messes with my “rhythm” while I’m knitting.  I have therefore turned to texture as my preferred design element.  Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of monochrome variegated yarns, many specifically meant for socks.  These are great for textured knitting patterns because the subtle variations in color add visual depth and interest but do not compete with the texture.  I cannot justify spending money on yarn when I have several pounds of wool in my house waiting to be spun.  Fortunately I also have dyes!  Sometime in January I will be dyeing sock yarn!

 I have discovered Cookie A.’s sock patterns, and am impatiently waiting for my birthday in February when I’ll be able to afford a copy of her book,  Sock Innovations.  Fortunately she also has a number of patterns available for free at Knitty.com, so I will have plenty of projects to keep me busy until then.  The photo here is her Clandestine pattern, adapted to be knee socks by starting with a slightly larger needle and adding four pattern repeats for length.  Because her socks tend to have slightly different instructions for the right and left foot, I decided not to do both socks at once until I was used to how she works.  This is the finished right sock-  I started the left sock yesterday.

I have discovered that I was not the only person getting frustrated with trying to knit fine yarns with blunt-tipped needles!  I love my Addi circs, but what was meant to be a plus (smooth round tips that won’t split yarn) is a real PITA when you’re using size 1 needles with fingering or lace weight yarn.  I think this frustration is one of the reasons I had put knitting aside for a while.  All the various decreases in texture knitting required several tries before I could get those nice round tips under my tiny yarns!  I went looking for sharper tips, and found that KnitPicks had gotten good reviews on all my required points (small needles, sharp tips, smooth joins between needle and cable), so I ordered several pairs (2,1,1-,0) just before Christmas and am impatiently waiting their arrival.  I’m dealing with the Addi’s until then, but I know these socks will be so much easier once I have sharper needles!

Finally, I have discovered Ravelry! This is Social Networking for fiber people.  No matter what you’re interested in there’s probably a Ravelry group for it, and if there isn’t you can make one!  I haven’t really started participating in the discussions yet because there’s so much still to read and look at, and I always prefer to take the temperature of an online group before I start posting.  I’m going to try not to get sucked too far into it – after all, I already have enough on my plate with these socks!

Of Socks and Stones. Alas, no sealing wax, nor cabbages and kings.

My new “rocks” arrived a good week ago, and I’m still thinking hard about what I want to use them for, other than the classic “variations on a theme.”  I’ve been doing some of that just to keep myself in the right headspace, and I think it’s starting to work.  I’m feeling glimmerings of inspiration for Monday! 

The stone in the ring on the left is a peridot, even though you probably can’t tell from this shot-

I am, however, starting to regret my decision to go for a greater variety of stones of lower cost/quality over shelling out more money for larger lots of one or two stones, but with better cut.  My stone setting skills are not yet that flexible.  I have a set of stone-setting burs in a variety of sizes, but there are one or two that are missing that I think I will have to buy in order to set some of these stones.  The CZs I was setting earlier are machine-cut, and all fit perfectly.  These new stones have more size variation, and end up being just a smidge larger or smaller than the closest “matching” bur size.  Add to that my less-than-ideal setup for holding on to rings and earrings while I’m trying to set stones (sometimes it’s a two-handed process) and you have a good recipe for frustration 😦  

This has combined with my decision not to buy anything I can make at home, and has led to me spending more time knitting myself a new pair of socks than working in the studio.  I really need to cut that out and do my knitting after Scarlett gets home from school.  That was supposed to be the deal – I stay home and work in the studio during school hours.  Yes, socks are necessary, but I can work on those when Scarlett is home, so I should not use my precious and limited my-autistic-daughter-is-at-school hours for knitting.  On the other hand, these are going to be very nice, warm, decorative socks!

This is the “Cabled Corn ” pattern from Knitting Circles Around Socks, which I love not so much for the sock patterns (which are nice), but for the two-socks-at-once technique the author uses.  I will no longer suffer from Second Sock Syndrome!  For those unfamiliar with the condition, SSS is characterized by a tendency to knit the first sock in a given pattern, then get bored with the pattern and move on to something else.   The sad result is a large number of orphan socks.  Knitting them both at once does a great deal to alleviate this situation!  These socks are being knit in a handspun wool/silk blend I had hanging around.  I have a lot of handspun hanging around – eventually most of it will turn into something.  Right now it is becoming winter socks!